Syracuse, N.Y. -- As this is the “How’d I Do?” start to the week (as in how’d my weekend forecast of last Friday work out?), it’s easy to report that I did splendidly.

But then, you could have dragged a guy who’d been adrift at sea off his raft and he’d have known enough to predict that James Southerland would somehow make some news in the day or two ahead.

Well, he did ... didn’t he? After just shy of a month in dry dock where his scholarly dots were finally connected to apparent satisfaction, the senior forward was reinstated by that Syracuse University panel whose job it was to separate the academic wheat from the academic chaff.

And, wow, it took a while. Some 29 days. Fully six games. A ride up and down the Top 10. And throughout it all, while SU managed the situation by stitching lips as if they were baseballs, imaginations hummed and conspiracy theories wafted.

“I don’t read blogs and stuff like that, but people do tell me things,” Jim Boeheim, the Orange coach, said on Sunday afternoon following his club's 77-58 conquest of St. John’s at the Carrier Dome. “And none of the stuff out there is even remotely close to what happened. Not even in the ballpark. But that’s just the way the world is today. That’s why I don’t have a computer. I don’t want to throw up every day.”

He was referring to the rumors spread by folks with trusted “sources” that touched virtually every imaginable (and sometimes, unimaginable) base. That SU unwittingly fanned those gossipy flames by choosing, as was its right but not its duty, to not refute the most outrageous ones, didn’t matter.

Fact is, we live among citizens, very devoted to that Orange basketball program, who can become, um, “creative” when left to their own devices. And in the Southerland case, apparently closed but not fully shared, this seems to have been the case.

“It’s amazing how we like fiction,” Boeheim mused. “Amazing. Can’t get a newspaper, but we can get fiction.”

And now, we get James Southerland back. That’s not a bad throw-in.

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Here is the weekly “schedule of events” in Bud Poliquin’s corner of syracuse.com:

MONDAY -- By 8 a.m.: The daily column/commentary. By 11:30 a.m.: “How’d I Do?” By 6 p.m.: “Ask Me Anything” by submitting questions (to which I’ll give answers) on any sports-related topic to bpoliquin@syracuse.com. (Please include name and hometown.)

TUESDAY -- By 8 a.m.: The daily column/commentary. By 11:30 a.m.: “Coach’s Corner,” wherein readers can submit questions to any coach at any level in Central New York (and answers will be posted) to bpoliquin@syracuse.com. (Please include name and hometown.) By 6 p.m.: “The Video Store.”

WEDNESDAY -- By 8 a.m.: The daily column/commentary. By 11:30 a.m.: “The List.” By 6 p.m.: “E-Mail Of The Week,” wherein readers can submit legitimate essays/open letters/observations for purposes of posting to bpoliquin@syracuse.com. (Please include name and hometown.)